Yellowfin seabream

Acanthopagrus latus is a medium-sized (25–50 cm) marine and brackish-water sparid (family Sparidae) distributed from the western Pacific to the Indian Ocean, including coastal waters of Japan, China, Southeast Asia, the Persian Gulf, and northern Australia. It has a deep, laterally compressed, ovate body typical of seabreams, with a slightly pointed snout, strong jaws bearing incisor-like teeth anteriorly and molar-like teeth laterally for crushing shells, a single long dorsal fin with both spiny and soft-rayed portions, and a forked tail. The body is silvery with a dusky dorsal region, and the pelvic and anal fins are distinctively yellow—hence its common name. A. latus inhabits estuaries, mangroves, coastal reefs, and nearshore sandy and muddy bottoms. It is euryhaline and eurythermal, tolerating a wide range of salinities and temperatures. The species is omnivorous, feeding on bivalves, crustaceans, polychaetes, and algae. Like many sparids, A. latus is a protandrous hermaphrodite—individuals first mature as males and later transition to females. Spawning occurs in coastal waters during spring. It is an important fisheries and aquaculture species throughout its range, and its genome has been investigated for studies of sex change, growth, and osmoregulation in euryhaline teleosts.